NOAA Evaluating Emerging Technologies for Future Earth Observation Systems

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is scheduled to meet with potential collaborators for its new Earth observation enhancement effort.

The upcoming series of meetings is in connection with three new broad agency announcements focused on measuring atmospheric winds, hyperspectral microwave remote sensing observations and artificial intelligence-powered digital twin technologies, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

In an April 22 statement, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service said that the emerging technologies will be investigated for their ability to enhance current models, including numerical weather prediction.

NESDIS added that the BAAs will inform the development of future satellite and ground architecture products and services.

Sid Boukabara, a senior scientist at NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service Office of System Architecture and Advanced Planning, said that the technologies may eventually greatly improve the agency’s ability to generate quality data for customers. “The ultimate goal is to improve the forecast skills of NOAA,” Boukabara told SpaceNews.

He added that the technologies will help NOAA transition to relying on smaller low-Earth orbit satellites and more commercial services. 

Boukabara said that the agency expects to see an explosion in the amount of weather data that it needs to process, which he said is “a good problem to have.”

According to Boukabara, the point of the BAAs is to gather data on how well the emerging technologies work. NOAA has not yet made a decision on whether or not to field any of them. 

White papers for the BAAs are due May 27, according to NOAA’s notices posted on SAM .gov.